Why Did IDF Not Share Al-Dura Video?

Newest testimony in Al-Dura case raises the question: where was the IDF while others fought to clear Israel’s name?

By Maayana Miskin

First Publish: 7/9/2013, 3:29 PM

The al-Dura Incident

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Last week retired Israel Police Weapons Lab director Elliot Springer gave new testimony regarding the infamous Al-Dura video, which the Arab world has held up as evidence that Israeli soldiers shot and killed an Arab child.

During his years with the Israel Police, Springer was not authorized to speak to the media about the affair, and could only watch in silence as Western media blamed Israel for the death, while Arab terrorist groups used it as an excuse for further attacks on Israel.

Now he has revealed that just weeks after the alleged shooting, senior IDF officials met and watched the entire video, rather than the edited version presented by France’s Channel 2 that sparked the accusations against Israel.

"Despite the media reports based on edited and doctored video footage, we watched the original, and all sounds of IDF fire was muffled - far away in the background. When the barrage fired at al-Dura was fired, the audio was suddenly close by - in other words Arab gumen right beside the camera near al-Dura fired them, not the IDF,” he reported.

Springer’s testimony strengthens those of other witnesses and experts who have declared the IDF innocent of shooting Al-Dura. However, it has also raised a disturbing new question: if the IDF had the original, full footage of the shooting, why did it not share it with Dr. Yehuda David, French media analyst Philippe Karsenty, or others who attempted to advocate on Israel’s behalf?

Both David and Karsenty fought in court to force France’s Channel 2 to reveal the full footage. Both needed it to help their own cases: Karsenty was sued for accusing French media of deliberately staging the video, while David was sued by Al-Dura’s father, Jamal, for revealing that scars Jamal had claimed were the result of bullet wounds sustained in the shooting were in fact from an incident years earlier in which Jamal had been attacked by an Arab gang.

Both men fought lengthy legal battles over their attempts to defend the IDF from libel – and yet the IDF apparently did not offer them help when it could, by making the full video available to them.

It is also not clear why the IDF did not make the whole video public in order to boost the growing body of evidence showing the IDF did not cause Al-Dura’s death.

IDF spokespeople did not respond to an Arutz Sheva request for comment.